2011-03-Budapest

International Workshop on Innovative Financial Mechanisms

22-23 March 2011
Budapest, Hungary

The Hungarian presidency of the EU Council organised this two-day workshop, bringing together experts from EU and selected non-EU countries, from governments, institutions and NGOs to review the 6 instrument categories previously discussed under the CBD:

• Payments for ecosystem services
• Biodiversity offset mechanisms
• Environmental fiscal reforms
• Markets for green products
• Biodiversity in international development finance
• Biodiversity in climate change funding

The workshop began with presentations on the 6 instrument categorises and illustrative case studies. In addition, John van Himbergen of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment (the Netherlands) gave a presentation on GDI, while Francis Vorhies of Earthmind introduced the concept of Biodiversity Positive Markets. Discussion sections and working groups followed the presentations. It was concluded that financial mechanisms have great potential at various levels to benefit biodiversity. Several definitions are unclear, however, and more detailed discussions and further refinements are needed. In some cases, specific examples may be more useful than exhaustive discussions of definitions.

Workshop agenda
GDI presentation
IFM presentation
Workshop Report on Innovative Financial Mechanisms